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Twitch Upcoming!

We're delaying our Twitch till AFTER a very specific KS update. You'll know what one, we'll talk about the twitch in the update. We need all hands to get this one ready.
Which still means something good is coming.https://www.twitch.tv/missingworldsmedia

I know that being the most elite police unit doesn't equate to being particularly well-funded, but I presume Gherrenfur wants his office to look like a Dick Tracy special rather than that he - or, rather, the city - can't afford anything more presentable.

I can imagine that going to a Titan City bar and ordering a chaser could make for some awkward moments.

I'm afraid I have to be a doomsayer on this one Jaybezz: don't get your hopes up. The KS perks were for buildings and NPC's and stuff, not to dictate actual game world policies. Saying such a prison exists or the Department of Emergency is world building and fundamentally changes the feel and design of the game world. Probably not allowed.

Oh I trust that the game won't make our SG stories canon. They are definitely for us to have our own brand of story that is displayed in th game-verse but is definitely not Dev created content.

But I am now a bit.. concerned about what it is we paid for to get included in the kickstarter..

Thank you for disclaimers and all but there is MUCH to be explained in execution. So much of the plans for CoT could have been more expressly stated as to avoid confusion and later disappointment. This lack of precise communication has definitely piqued my rabbit ears and my antennae are setting themselves much closer to caution than indulgence.

also I don't see anywhere in the article stating that he's anthropomorphic. Does that mean the chief of police is a talking dog?

"Now that the shock had passed, she saw it was more human-looking than she’d thought, like a fur-covered man with a lupine head and tail. "

With sweatpants, I guess he's just got a hole in them for his tail, but that strikes me as an awkward solution for individuals whose tails are not prehensile, let alone folks with bushy tails. Fortunately, we have the technology. A little time with a decent tailor, and we can have the Chief fitted out in style.

For that matter, as many tailed beings as there are likely to be in the city, some clothing with proper tail management accoutrements should probably be available off the rack.

Wait... hes most likely a Ware-wolf... since he had to have been Elected to that position, right? As a Human!?!?!?

Well it's open enough, he could be a werewolf, an uplifted wolf, a hybridized wolf/human, or a refuge from an alternate dimension where wolves evolved to be the dominate life form instead of apes.

Depending on the exact form of government Titan City adopted the police commissioner (if they have one) may be elected, but the Deputy Chief of Tactical Units (or any other chief) would be an appointment from within the TCPD.

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I never set anything on fire accidentally!

It's true the KS left things open - from what I hear, it's going to be judged on a case by case basis. You'll get a general survey to find out what you had in mind and then they will work with you to find the closest thing or best substitute possible if your original idea can't be used.

But, think of it this way. You *were* told what you made had to be appropriate for its location. This doesn't just mean the zone, it means the game itself - what you make has to conform to how the team has defined the in-game world. If the game has no winged horses, for example, you can't have a building labeled 'Pegasus breeding farm' - its mere presence compromises the game lore. The government is basically a faction, its policies reflections of that faction's role in-game. As such, whatever you make has to conform to the faction rules and defined personality - you can't have a big government building with a title that players can enter that contradicts that, because it is a real building - IT IS AN OFFICIAL PART OF THE GAME WORLD. The tradeoff for that big, officially condoned and aided game world presence is that it has to support canon in all ways. If you have a real building in the real game world, it can't exist to support an alternate fanfiction version of game lore. That compromises the game itself.

In short, you can't say 'I don't expect it to be made canon', because your building IS canon - by default.

It's true the KS left things open - from what I hear, it's going to be judged on a case by case basis. You'll get a general survey to find out what you had in mind and then they will work with you to find the closest thing or best substitute possible if your original idea can't be used.
But, think of it this way. You *were* told what you made had to be appropriate for its location. This doesn't just mean the zone, it means the game itself - what you make has to conform to how the team has defined the in-game world. If the game has no winged horses, for example, you can't have a building labeled 'Pegasus breeding farm' - its mere presence compromises the game lore. The government is basically a faction, its policies reflections of that faction's role in-game. As such, whatever you make has to conform to the faction rules and defined personality - you can't have a big government building with a title that players can enter that contradicts that, because it is a real building - IT IS AN OFFICIAL PART OF THE GAME WORLD. The tradeoff for that big, officially condoned and aided game world presence is that it has to support canon in all ways. If you have a real building in the real game world, it can't exist to support an alternate fanfiction version of game lore. That compromises the game itself.

Personally, it's getting harder for me to get excited for these kinds of "updates", and I'm afraid I have to use that term very loosely. Granted, there are some players who dig this kind of thing and week after week it's the same members posting about how amazing the lore is. But there are many players that don't care to invest a whole lot into what goes on behind the scenes story-wise. I've got 4 friends who have given up checking back week after week because they are tired of the lore updates. It just feels like you're buying time with these things. And this latest one, Christ, was it written by someone who is the top student in their grade 10 creative writing class in high school or what?

I love you guys and what you are doing for the City of Heroes community. But it's time for some tech updates. Lets see some zone maps, hand drawn even. New costume and color palates. A newly designed neighbourhood park or row of houses. ANYTHING.

Personally, it's getting harder for me to get excited for these kinds of "updates", and I'm afraid I have to use that term very loosely. Granted, there are some players who dig this kind of thing and week after week it's the same members posting about how amazing the lore is. But there are many players that don't care to invest a whole lot into what goes on behind the scenes story-wise. I've got 4 friends who have given up checking back week after week because they are tired of the lore updates. It just feels like you're buying time with these things. And this latest one, Christ, was it written by someone who is the top student in their grade 10 creative writing class in high school or what?
I love you guys and what you are doing for the City of Heroes community. But it's time for some tech updates. Lets see some zone maps, hand drawn even. New costume and color palates. A newly designed neighbourhood park or row of houses. ANYTHING.

So, last week?

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Technical Director

Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider

Oh I trust that the game won't make our SG stories canon. They are definitely for us to have our own brand of story that is displayed in th game-verse but is definitely not Dev created content.
But I am now a bit.. concerned about what it is we paid for to get included in the kickstarter..
Thank you for disclaimers and all but there is MUCH to be explained in execution. So much of the plans for CoT could have been more expressly stated as to avoid confusion and later disappointment. This lack of precise communication has definitely piqued my rabbit ears and my antennae are setting themselves much closer to caution than indulgence.

Ultimately what we are going to do is work with you. We have some areas off-limits due to the demands of the game lore, namely without them we could not develop key areas. But we have kept those to a minimum as much as possible. You typically would find them for things that a lot of people would scramble for and we don't want a fight between donors, such as the Police Chief, Commissioner or Mayor. On the other hand, we've named no Precinct captains, no City Council, etc.

Other areas we have penciled in names in case nobody opts to name them. For instance, we had a one-building university planned in one district (not the only University in the city, mind you), but when someone emailed us asking if a university would be acceptable as their Mogul the pencil went away as we knew they were coming.

These are the next areas of the Kickstarter we will be processing, so we can then work to adapt the lore around them. We want this world to reflect all of you as much as anything. We just want to make sure we are fair about it.

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Technical Director

Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider

Okay. Foot officially in mouth on that one. Seems I didn't get the update email for last week. Just took a look and apparently it's pretty much exactly what I just complained about ugh. Apologies are in order soooo...sorry about that :/

Okay. Foot officially in mouth on that one. Seems I didn't get the update email for last week. Just took a look and apparently it's pretty much exactly what I just complained about ugh. Apologies are in order soooo...sorry about that :/

No worries.

So you understand, we have a pattern for releases. The last release of the month is almost always Technical, the first release of the month is always business-related. The middle two are for the creative teams. On occasion we need to substitute one or the other, but that is the general pattern.

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Technical Director

Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider

The lore updates are very important to me. Half of what I invested into CoX was my attention to story--even more so writing my own characters back story that integrated tightly into CoX's. What's great is people don't have to pay attention to the story at all to have a blast, and still be a player for life. I want as many lore updates as dev/art updates. On the other hand, of course I agree that the latter is far more reassuring since it shows there's actual progress on the game becoming a reality. If people get discouraged because there isn't a flood of dev updates, then it is solely that person's problem. CoT's steady progress doesn't shift because people want more tech updates. I'd rather receive a huge tech update once in a while with an abundance of images and information when the right time comes; instead of small tech updates that aren't absolute. Honestly, CoT doesn't owe us any updates. With hundreds of people working on this project, it's a relief that this forum exists to prove it's a breathing organism, taking the time to tell us it's alive. I know you aren't against lore updates, Zerohour, but lore updates =/= stagnant tech progress.

I've been constructing an epic book series for several years, and I have an ungodly mountain of notes that connects story, characters, history, geography, etc. At first, whenever I told my close friends some of it's lore, they seemed real interested and excited. Eventually over the years I've stopped telling them this lore because they go blank faced after I've told them more then 5 minutes of it. They just want to read the books, and they're tired of hearing tidbits. So I absolutely understand your point, and your thread isn't that unreasonable.

As a note, I was a little off-put that a wolf was police chief. When he was first introduced, I instantly pictured a cartoony wolf from a different artist, imposed into a darker, gritty world of another. Talking animals or furies definitely aren't in my style of reading/writing--especially when it comes to super heroes. But the more I read, he turned out to be one dark, gritty police chief, and my view of him evolved. I dig his demeanor, and look forward to seeing him in game. From what I've read so far, I have trust the stories will be amazing. I'm definitely loving all the names chosen for the districts as well--they're perfect.

I agree and am on board with everything you've said here *except* the part about CoT not owing us updates. I believe they DO, since we are they ones that collectively made this project a reality. We are like shareholders in a company, and you can't very well leave them in the dark and just go about your merry way...

The problem is that if we DID show you the vast majority of our current progress in Tech, you wouldn't get it anyway. Maybe five percent would have a clue what it really meant or what it represented in terms of progress. That's excluding the in-progress work on things like the mesh for the actual character model, which as Cabbit said last week isn't ready. Progress at this stage just doesn't take a form very presentable to players.

Basically, most of Tech isn't very accessible until it's wearing clothes from the Art department. We are steadily reaching a point where we will finally be able to give more concrete stuff like this on a more regular basis.

I agree and am on board with everything you've said here *except* the part about CoT not owing us updates. I believe they DO, since we are they ones that collectively made this project a reality. We are like shareholders in a company, and you can't very well leave them in the dark and just go about your merry way...

Fair enough, and good point. You're definitely right. I suppose I meant for us non-KSers. Which I hope to be able to contribute some day since I missed the bus.

Okay. Foot officially in mouth on that one. Seems I didn't get the update email for last week. Just took a look and apparently it's pretty much exactly what I just complained about ugh. Apologies are in order soooo...sorry about that :/

Well, we are starting to reach a point where MWM can give us actual mechanical/technical information on the game. For instance, the update before that one on masteries was also a non-lore update. And we got a bit more information on Tertiary powers in the discussion thread for that update.

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I never set anything on fire accidentally!

You know how we keep saying we are 'ending pre-production'? Which is to say, the design stage? Well, so long as we were still officially in the design stage there was relatively little we were ever sure wouldn't change. That's the whole purpose of such a long design stage, to allow everything to shift in relation to each other on paper, where it's pain free, instead of mid-development, where it's painful and dreadfully time consuming. So we never wanted to commit information out there if we could help it.

But now that that stage is finally ending, a lot of information will get 'unlocked'. We'll still be rationing them, if only to make sure we last two years, but we're going to be able to say more with more confidence in short order. Having stuff to show will take a little longer.

JayBezz wrote:
Oh I trust that the game won't make our SG stories canon. They are definitely for us to have our own brand of story that is displayed in th game-verse but is definitely not Dev created content.
But I am now a bit.. concerned about what it is we paid for to get included in the kickstarter..
Thank you for disclaimers and all but there is MUCH to be explained in execution. So much of the plans for CoT could have been more expressly stated as to avoid confusion and later disappointment. This lack of precise communication has definitely piqued my rabbit ears and my antennae are setting themselves much closer to caution than indulgence.

Ultimately what we are going to do is work with you. We have some areas off-limits due to the demands of the game lore, namely without them we could not develop key areas. But we have kept those to a minimum as much as possible. You typically would find them for things that a lot of people would scramble for and we don't want a fight between donors, such as the Police Chief, Commissioner or Mayor. On the other hand, we've named no Precinct captains, no City Council, etc.
Other areas we have penciled in names in case nobody opts to name them. For instance, we had a one-building university planned in one district (not the only University in the city, mind you), but when someone emailed us asking if a university would be acceptable as their Mogul the pencil went away as we knew they were coming.
These are the next areas of the Kickstarter we will be processing, so we can then work to adapt the lore around them. We want this world to reflect all of you as much as anything. We just want to make sure we are fair about it.

"Work with us" is precisely what I was expecting. While I've designed the most beautiful uniform ever, I understand that I will need to actually have someone sculpt the assets and give them life on a form to be in the game (unless of course you don't mind me doing it myself). Thank goodness I asked diligent questions about the nature of the Fashionista perk and what would be possible.

As for the building, I was always acutely aware that It would "appear" in game and would thusly be apart of the game verse, but I don't even know if that just means we can just throw a sign on existing buildings or fully design it (thankfully I wasn't the one who paid for the architect perk). But I was not expecting much more than our Logo on a building for the SG.. how people perceived that in game would depend on their Roleplay.

- -

I want to point out that when we chose (when re-branding) to go with a federal agency led by a newly formed Cabinet position (Department of Emergency) because the jurisdiction is outside of what we'd expected to see in the game. We want to be a part of the game-verse that has a certain amount of autonomy so that our members don't feel too stifled. If the game were called "Earth Titans" we would have chosen to be an interstellar or inter-dimensional agency. I don't think we're laying claim to the only agency that exists (governmental or not) but I don't really see how the game lore should conflict with RP Guilds.

But perhaps being part of the game verse is inevitable. I just know that DE:LTA will definitely exist. I didn't expect a conflict with current story but if there be some, I have confidence that the group is full of creative storytellers.

My thoughts on the update are it was written well, had my full interest, and got me thinking about what it could mean for the players in the game. I thought, "wouldn't it be cool if you could actually JOIN the SWAT team in-game?" City of Heroes only touched on that with the jobs mechanic, but all that was involved there was standing at a spot when you log out. Which was cool, don't get me wrong. But City of Titans has the potential to take it further with in-game story archs that allow you to join a given faction. And say you complete the story to join the SWAT faction. Now your name appears in their roster as one of the members of the SWAT. Now you can salute and be saluted back. You'll get access to things only available to SWAT members. In the same respect, you could lose your job if you do too many things against their rules.

Now, I don't know how doable it would be to have a faction system where you could literally be a member of a given gang and unlock the ability to wear their colors, but it was a thought that came about as a direct result of the latest update showing a non-human in a SWAT uniform - indicating that supers do, in fact, join their ranks. :)

Unrelated RL stuff made my mind wander, by way of sports, to wonder about medical technology in Titan City (and, by extension, the world at large). How advanced and freely available is such technology?

What might one see happen in sports if the athletes know that, should they get hurt, it's, "Off to the bacta tank!" and they're back in shape in a few hours or a few days? For the police it would be a little different, especially for the likes of SWAT who may face individuals or technologies that do not merely wound. In any other situation, how would a police officer behave if they knew that the average gun shot wound (or two) are rarely fatal and would not lay them up for even a week? (Sure, it still hurts, but...)

Well Darth Fez like someone (me) said. "You might be able to heal at super speed, that doesn't mean you don't Feel the pain of having your flesh burnt off." There might be a Healing tank that would speed up recovery, but how costly would that be for the normal person. The Supers might get medical coverage that don't mean Joe Beat Cop would get the same medical care package.

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Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP

On the note of a healing tank, what if some doctors and nurses in the world had healing other powers and it was simply a matter of showing up in the guarded safety of the titan city hospital? Healing one person and denying health to another simply on the merit that one is better than another in some way is a direct violation of modern medical ethics, unless a doctor or nurse has a specific, religious reason not to treat someone as in the case of abortion for example, then that person will receive good treatment or else be liable in medical law. Selling the medical profession short on ethical practices in Titan City is not something I approve of.

I suppose you could have a mission where the villains kidnap a nurse with healing powers in the parking lot. The only priority set in a triage clinic is severity of injuries.

Now I do admit having been a triage cleric in a major in game war event that lasted months and having spent 18+ hours daily helping out (teenager and summer vacation), when I got tired of being in the clinic all the time I did go out and bring my powers of healing to the battle field. By then I was so well known in player triage that I was instantly healed upon being dragged in maimed and dead and on my feet about instantly. You could consider it 100% rep with hospital. That lasted about 4 deaths, after that they were treating me like everyone else. :P

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Imaginitive young lady looking for clients, talents are imagining the realistic possibilities of practically anything, and applying new technologies to practical applications in all types of business.